Record reflective questions on capture sheet – ongoing throughout the day
10.15am-10.45am
Session One Table Topics
Table 1
Pasifika – Gagne’s model
Ingrid Frengley-Vaipuna & Lesieli MacIntyre
Table 2
Opportunities and challenges when offering a programme for secondary students
Heather Meikle
Table 3
Talking about giftedness; Teachers and Parents
Sue Cooke
Table 4
Role of the RTLB
Christine Omundsen
Table 5
Irlen Syndrome and the Underachieving Gifted Student
Prue Deighton
Table 6
Young Gifted Children
Susan Hunt, Educational Psychologist
Table 7
One Day School: the REACH model as a framework for classroom planning
Suzanne Smith & Pearl Naulder
Table 8
Using Museum collections for individual student inquiry
Margie Beautrais
Table 9
Boys – Catering to Gifted and Talented Boys
[session one only; not repeated for session two]
Joseph Driessen
Table 10
Student panel
Facilitated by Dawn Duncum & Donna Scrimshaw
10.45am-11.15am
Morning tea
11.15am-11.45am
Session Two Table Topics
Same as above except Table 9 is not repeated
11.45am-12.15pm
Speaker 2
ERO: Evaluating schools’ provision for gifted and talented students – what’s next?
Robyn Gibbs
12.15pm-12.30pm
Record reflective questions on capture sheet – ongoing throughout the day
12.30pm-1.15pm
Lunch
1.15pm-1.45pm
Speaker 3
A tour of Gifted and Talented online
Maria Lute
1.45pm-3.00pm
Draft Regional Goals
Discussion on draft regional goals
Actions to take back to your school
Add to the regional strategy plan
This will be a group facilitated effort from the reflections that have been gathered over the course of the day
Group facilitation
Speaker and table presenter information
Name
Bio
Christine Omundsen
In my past life I have been a teacher and principal and now am an RTLB within an intermediate and secondary cluster. Within RTLB work our view of GAT students is approached in the same way any other student with needs is approached i.e. via an ecological assessment. Our goal is to extend opportunities for all students.
Heather Meikle
Heather Meikle is the GATE coordinator at PNGHS; has published in the area of mentorship for Gifted and Talented science students; attended the World Conference for Gifted Children in 2003 and 2009; is the secretary for the NZ International Biology Olympiad and has a keen interest in science education and mentoring.
Ingrid Frengley-Vaipuna
Ingrid Frengley-Vaipuna has spent 30 years teaching (mostly English) in Australia, Tonga and New Zealand and is currently Deputy Principal at Patea Area School in South Taranaki. She has always been interested in the education of gifted students and completed a MEd thesis titled ‘Creating Kakala: Gifted and Talented Tongan Secondary School Students in New Zealand’ in 2007. She worked for Massey University as an adviser in Gifted and Talented education 2007–2008.
Joseph Driessen BSc TTC MEd Admin
Joseph is one of New Zealand leading educators in boys’ education, and runs an international education consultancy Education Answers. Joseph delivers programmes related to boys’ education, student behaviour management, differentiated learning, and early childhood education to teachers and parents both in New Zealand, Australia, Ireland and the United Kingdom.
He is past Assistant Principal of Wanganui High School where he introduced and managed a programme for GAT students, ranging from Year 9 to Year 13. Included in this programme was a mentoring programme whereby older GAT students mentored groups of 3 younger GAT students.
Lesieli MacIntyre
Lesieli is a registered teacher and has worked in various areas of education for more than thirty years. She is currently a senior lecturer at the School of Educational Studies, Massey University College of Education.
Lesieli investigated “how Tongan mothers contribute to their children’s learning and education in New Zealand” for her PhD. She has written children’s stories, prepared teaching resources for preschool centres and primary schools, translated children stories into Tongan language, and participated in writing teams for Learning Languages in New Zealand Curriculum, and the National Diploma in Teaching ECE, Pasifika, Level 7. She has provided professional development in cross-cultural communication in teaching for teachers.
Lesieli supervises domestic and international students’ Masters theses and projects. Her research interest lies in Pasifika parents’ education, and in Pasifika children as bilingual learners in New Zealand.
Margie Beautrais
Margie Beautrais has worked at Whanganui Regional Museum as an educator for over eight years for learners at all levels of the curriculum, from pre-schoolers through to tertiary students. Margie provides for individual inquiry learning using the museum collection as a way of encouraging students with abilities or interests in a specific area.
Maria Lute PMP
Maria is an education consultant with Cognition and a credentialed project manager. She currently manages Gifted Online and English, ESOL and Literacy Online. Her work on the Gifted and Talented contract for the Ministry of Education includes the facilitation of regional goals for seven regions and the coordination of the regional symposia.
Pearl Naulder
Pearl Naulder is a member of GiftEDNZ. She is currently retired. Pearl has been a local and national New Zealand Association for Gifted Children (NZAGC) President, a Mensa area coordinator, specialist teacher, One Day School teacher, Adviser to Schools (GATE) for several years before the demise of the Advisory service. Her passion includes GLD as she is part of a family of visual-spatial gifted dyslexics (five children, eleven grandchildren).
Prue Deighton
As a teacher I found that many children learned by a wonderful process of ‘educational osmosis’. Progress was made, school life was enjoyable and success enabled most of them to develop into confident, capable, independent learners. In every class however there were always those children who were underachievers – those for whom learning was a challenge. Those children were a real concern to me.
Additional training, specialisation and working with dyslexic and gifted children in 1-1 and group situations subsequently lead me to Nga Tawa (14 yrs) then to St George’s School (6 yrs). In both schools I established ‘Learning Support’ departments. I worked with a range of student abilities in 1-1 and group situations.
Over 27 years of specialisation with ‘Educational Remediation’ I have enquired into and explored many ways to recognize and remove ‘Barriers to Learning’. One of the most valuable additions to my toolkit has been the ‘Irlen Method’ of checking students/adults for Scotopic Sensitivity. Irlen Syndrome is one ‘Barrier to Learning’ which can be easily recognised and removed.
Robyn Gibbs
Robyn is a former primary school teacher and Education Review Officer. She now works in the Evaluation Services Unit of ERO. Robyn was part of the internal reference group for ERO’s evaluation of schools’ provision for gifted and talented students. She has a strong interest in student engagement and factors that foster it. She is married with three grown up children.
Sue Cooke
Sue Cooke is a parent of two gifted teenagers. Whilst not formerly qualified in the area of gifted and talented education she brings to the symposium personal experience. Sue also has extensive knowledge acquired from reading widely on the subject. She has been an artist for the past 25 years and is currently working with the theme of Antarctica.
Susan Hunt
Susan is a Clinical Psychologist who works with children and their families. Susan studied Education as well as Psychology, and enjoys working with children who are gifted and/or have learning, emotional or behavioural issues. She has been involved with gifted children for the last 10 years; an interest sparked by personal experience as a parent. Susan carries out assessments for the Gifted Education Centre in the Wellington area as well as private assessment and therapy work.
Suzanne Smith
Suzanne Smith is a specialist teacher working with gifted and talented students, their families, and teachers across two Palmerston North schools. She has also worked as a One Day School Teacher, classroom teacher, and has published learning resources. She has a teenager who is twice exceptional and has strong over-excitabilities, which has founded an intense interest advocating for these students in the classroom.
Presentation Abstracts
Presentation Name
Abstract
Catering to Gifted and Talented Boys (Joseph Driessen)
In this presentation Joseph will present the evidence for innate learning differences between many boys and girls and will explore a range of critical teaching / parenting skills required to do justice to those boys who show talents and dispositions which can remain unrecognised and not catered for.
Ideas he will explore will include differences in empathy and systematic thinking; the male preference for facts and patterns; the willingness to challenge and (re)invent; the need for relevance and logic; the all-or nothing approach and the need for future economic relevance.
Joseph will also touch upon the need for boys to experience loving and consistent relationships in order to thrive cognitively, and the obstacles which society puts in the way of achieving this ideal.
Evaluating schools’ provision for gifted and talented students – what’s next? (Robyn Gibbs)
This presentation will share the key findings from ERO’s 2008 evaluation of schools’ provision for gifted and talented students, and pose some questions about the next steps for schools. Participants will be asked to consider:
what support schools and their communities need to construct culturally inclusive definitions of giftedness, and establish identification processes and programmes for gifted and talented students;
the features of programmes that extend, enrich, and accelerate gifted students; and
how the Teaching as Inquiry process can be used to review the effectiveness of programmes and the outcomes for gifted and talented students.
Gifted and Talented Tongan Students (Ingrid Frengley-Vaipuna & Lesieli MacIntyre)
This presentation is based around Ingrid’s research into gifted and talented Tongan students in New Zealand which was underpinned by Gagne’s Differentiated Model of Giftedness and Talent (DMGT). The discussion will also explore how this model can apply to other cultural groups.
Irlen Syndrome and the Underachieving Gifted Student (Prue Deighton)
This presentation will provide an understanding of the ‘Irlen Method’ of checking students/adults for ‘Irlen Syndrome’. Irlen Syndrome otherwise known as Scotopic Sensitivity is a condition which arises due to a sensitivity of the visual perceptual system to certain frequencies within the white light spectrum.
This presentation will provide an awareness of the distortions which arise when the visual perceptual systems fatigues and goes into shock when reading black print on white paper. Viewers will experience why some students have difficulty with tracking when reading - why they constantly have difficulty holding their place. Distortions, movement, blurring of print combine with sore eyes and reaction to glare to create a very significant ‘Barrier to Learning’.
It is the detail of ‘how’ and ‘why’ checking for Irlen Syndrome should be a part of every teacher’s toolkit that I look forward to sharing at the Gifted and Talented Symposium.
One Day School: the REACH model as a framework for classroom planning (Suzanne Smith & Pearl Naulder)
The REACH model, as used by One Day School, is an excellent framework for classroom planning. This approach is designed to enhance the learning of all students as well as support the ODS programme. It also facilitates the inclusion of other thinking and learning strategies.
Opportunities and challenges when offering a programme for secondary students (Heather Meikle)
This session will include a sharing of opportunities and challenges when offering a programme for secondary students. The use of CREST (Creativity in Science and Technology) as a higher order thinking and creative problem solving model will also be discussed.
Role of the RTLB (Christine Omundsen)
This presentation covers the processes taken once a referral is received by RTLB. This process includes:
Teacher and/or home interview
Data collection
Feedback to referrer and collaborative planning meeting
Intervention plan
Review
This ecological assessment shows up what specific issues there are for the student, teacher and parents
Discussion of cases, plans and outcomes.
Talking about giftedness (Sue Cooke)
This presentation will detail the indicators of gifted and talented students. Sue will then explore the issues, for both teachers and parents, and provide workable solutions for discussing gifted and talented students.
Tour of Gifted Online (Maria Lute)
This presentation showcases the tools and resources available on Gifted Online for teachers, parents and students. It also highlights some of the developments planned for this website.
Using Museum collections for individual student inquiry (Margie Beautrais)
This presentation provides some examples of how the museum’s education service is used to extend learning in a variety of curriculum areas using the Museum collection. A selected range of interesting objects from the collection will be used to demonstrate how unusual and interesting museum objects can be used to extend thinking and to motivate further learning and inquiry.
Young Gifted Children (Susan Hunt)
This presentation will discuss young gifted children. It will focus on recognising the characteristics and meeting the needs of gifted children in the pre-school period.
Issues around assessment will also be considered: whether, when and how to assess in the early years.
Programme: Gifted & Talented Symposium Whanganui
Wednesday 14 September 2011, The Grand Hotel
[session one only; not repeated for session two]
Speaker and table presenter information
BSc TTC MEd Admin
PMP
Presentation Abstracts
(Joseph Driessen)
(Robyn Gibbs)
(Ingrid Frengley-Vaipuna & Lesieli MacIntyre)
(Prue Deighton)
(Suzanne Smith & Pearl Naulder)
(Christine Omundsen)
(Sue Cooke)
(Maria Lute)
(Margie Beautrais)
(Susan Hunt)